Their children were (and truth be told, still are)
perfect. Their lovely daughters sat on
the front row at church where every single eye could see them, and they sat still for an hour! How is that possible?
Those girls were 5 and 8, there is no way my kids could do that and we
had kept them in the service with us for years!
During the week, their equally lovely mother invited me over
to her home to help with VBS registration.
Her house was immaculate; I didn’t even see any dust. As I accompanied her upstairs she pointed to
her daughters, who were busily working on some school work, and instructed them
to keep working, to which they replied ‘Yes, ma’am” I felt
like I was in some kind of alternate reality.
That was the day I decided there was no way I could possibly
home school my kids. The only way
someone could possibly home school effectively was with kids that said things
like ‘yes ma’am’ and a house that was self cleaning. Looking back, I realize that she had invited
me over with the express purpose of encouraging me to home school. After we had talked about VBS, she graciously
explained home schooling. I am sure that
I nodded and said things that sounded complimentary, but in truth, I could not
imagine how anyone could home school. This woman was perfect, of course she could
home school! She and her hubby even had a cute little blog called “HomesCool”
where she gave biblical advice, tips about homemaking and schooling children,
and posted witty anecdotes about how her dear children had asked a funny
question. My family of 5, including 3 messy,
loud, occasionally obnoxious and often ornery boys, would never behave like hers.
A few months later we met a couple in our Sunday school
class that we just clicked with right away.
They had sons, we had sons. We
liked the same things and we spoke the same language and so we regularly
invited them over to the house and their noisy crew of 7 fit perfectly with our
noisy crew of 5. Over the course of our
friendship we discovered that they too had chosen to home educate. So one afternoon after church we agreed to go
over to their house and visit and talk about homeschooling.
When we arrived the front door, literally, would not
open. Their kids and ours went around
the house to play in the back yard while the dad jimmied the front door ajar
exclaiming that if ‘people’ didn’t learn to put their stuff away he was going
to lose his mind. With a mighty shove, pushing the door open and removing the
obstacle behind, we were admitted to the house. My friend blushed with embarrassment and apologized
for the mess. As we entered the living
room we discovered that the well loved furniture was covered in clean, unfolded
laundry. (Seven people need lots of clothes)
The ‘school room’ was actually a dining room converted into a hodgepodge
office/piano room/ gun safe/ room of many desks and tables and
bookshelves.
Together we straitened the kitchen and cooked a meal to feed
all 12 of us. I realized that it was a
good thing that it was sunny and summer time because the only place all of
these people could possibly sit and eat was on her back porch.
I felt so sorry for my friend. I could not imagine being cooped up in that
house with 5 children. As we pulled away
from their home my husband looked at me and said ‘We are never homeschooling, so just forget it.’ I nodded in agreement, there was no way we
could ever home school.
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